22 March 2012 3:38 PM

Car insurance costs are rising and certain groups - particularly young men - face being priced off the road completely.

Insurance that is priced with information from 'telematics' - dubbed 'black box' insurance - is touted as one solution. But it means drivers have their journeys tracked and may have to limit their journeys to achieve the best rates.

Here, Richard King, the founder of specialst young driver insurance brand Ingenie which uses telematics, argues that 'black boxes' can produce not just cheaper insurance, but safer drivers too.

From seemingly nowhere, telematics has become the buzzword of the car insurance market, heralded by both major political parties in recent weeks as the answer not only to fraudulent whiplash claims, but also recent EU gender rulings set to drive up car insurance premiums for female drivers.

Fitted behind the dashboard, the telematics 'black box' combines a range of technologies including GPS and a motion sensor to assess a driver’s unique driving style or 'DNA'.

Telematics acts as a co-pilot so that, regardless of gender, drivers can be assessed beyond the ‘collective risk’ assumptions of traditional car insurance that have contributed to sky high premiums for young drivers.

Which man? Not the man from Del Monte (he always says yes, so he doth not protest too much).

I am referring to the man from Which? Yes, Which?, the organisation that is seen by most people (including myself most of the time) as the consumer’s defender and the champion of full disclosure and transparency in all things to do with financial services.

07 November 2011 12:02 PM

Dear reader, I present to you today a parking sign uncovered in a leafy west London backstreet.

This is no ordinary, run of the mill, Pay-and-Display-or-we'll-nab-your-motor notice. No, no, no.

So before you read it, make sure you are well-seated (preferably on soft chair), have left November's first warm cup of cocoa on the kitchen table, and have cleared all chuckable objects lurking in arm's length.

31 October 2011 4:54 PM

As an investment proposition solar panels have looked fantastic for those who can afford them, but as a sustainable way of delivering green energy the Feed-in Tariffs scheme is deeply flawed.

Essentially, all households are paying higher energy bills to subsidise a 10 per cent, tax-free, inflation-linked return for those who can afford £10,000 to buy solar panels.

This has been set up by forcing energy companies to pay well over the odds for the electricity generated to encourage early adopters.

That bill is picked up by us in our household energy bills and the cash is ending up in the pockets of private companies playing the system and installing free solar panels in return for the generous subsidies meant for individuals.